Bellingham (Wash.) Herald dropping printed Saturday edition

Announced, of course, as an "expansion of the weekend editions." Saturday's paper will only be available as an e-edition.

The Bellingham Herald launches expanded weekend newspapers

Anybody know if this is McClatchy-wide?

 

Saturdays and Mondays (unless you're an NFL city) are usually the least-read papers, so I can't say this is a shocker.

 

I just read that McClatchy papers in Myrtle Beach and Durham are doing the same thing.

 

About the only things you're losing by dropping Saturday is college football previews and high school wrap-ups. And if you're at a paper that already has early deadlines, you've already lost the high school part for print.

One paper that I was at dropped its Saturday edition right in the middle of football season. But since deadline was already 10 p.m. and our staffing was down to next to nothing, we had already given up on getting high school football into Saturday print. I heard a few complaints, but nothing overwhelming since we were still getting scores and stories online.

 

At just about any daily, I'd argue for dropping the Monday edition (although in Bellingham, I'm sure they get McClatchy Seahawks coverage).

Take a look at the front pages on Newseum. Unless there's breaking news on a Sunday, the Monday A1s are lukewarm local leftovers mixed with wire filler.

 

Expansion of weekend papers? Shouldn't this be labeled reduction? Gotta love the positive spin.

 

I have no specific knowledge of what McClatchy is doing. But first quarter print advertising revenues were down 15% at McClatchy and 17% at Gannett, which is consistent with prior results. I read the transcript of a recent earnings call where the drop in advertising was blamed in part on large advertisers reducing the frequency of ad purchases. Less frequent add purchases are going to lead to less frequent publishing cycles.

I read an article once where a retired publisher was explaining why a move to reduced frequency did not make sense. His argument, to oversimplify, was that if you reduced frequency the paper would have to proportionally reduce the subscription price. I think publishers today would not reduce the subscription price, arguing on-line is available. He also talked about a somewhat proportional drop in advertising revenue. But I think Saturday advertising is down to damn near zero. And many of the items that run, such as obituaries, can wait until Sunday.

 

I know I posted similar items in the past. But in the first quarter McClatchy reported an operating loss of 41 million dolalrs. This was inflated by some write downs of assets nut total non-cash expenses including the write-offs, depreciation and amortization were 30 million dollars. So the cash burn was about 11 million dollars. The company only has 17 million in cash on hand. I would guess they have some credit lines they could draw upon but it is desperate times for the company.

That is why the stock market cap of the company is less than 20 million dollars.

 

Our 6-day paper swapped Monday for Saturday a couple of years ago. But it has an early deadline, so no preps — prep news kept on Sunday, as before. No NFL in the fall, but there had been a few trial balloons hoisted beforehand that clued us in to the switch (solid Cowboys country). Everyone gets Sundays off.

 

When I worked for M-F pm, Saturday am papers, I always wondered why the Friday wasn't dropped, because of the quick turnaround.